“What global warming? It’s freezing here.”

Since my previous post on global warming seems to be generating some heat (groan!) in the comments section, I thought I’d keep the theme going with this interesting bit from the new 40th anniversary issue of Rolling Stone (on newsstands but not yet online). I’ve always thought Bob Dylan is at least as entertaining an interview subject as he is a songwriter, and his verbal sparring with Jann Wenner is no exception. Not only does old Bob seem skeptical about the climate change hysteria, he’s dubious about government-as-the-solution in general.

Wenner: What do you think of the historical moment we’re in today? We seem to be hellbent on destruction. Do you worry about global warming?

Dylan: Where’s the global warming? It’s freezing here.

Wenner: It seems a pretty frightening outlook.

Dylan: I think what you’re driving at, though, is we expect politicians to solve all our problems. I don’t expect politicians to solve anybody’s problems.

Wenner: Who is going to solve them?

Dylan: Our own selves. We’ve got to take the world by the horns and solve our own problems. The world owes us nothing, each and every one of us, the world owes us not one single thing. Politicans or whoever.

All of which shouldn’t be too surprising from the man who wrote in Chronicles: Volume 1, “My favorite politician was Arizona senator Barry Goldwater.”